New Year, Let' s Go

It was a year ago today that I woke up and found all of my tires gone on my brand new car. We were heading out early to get ahead of a snowstorm on our way to a NYE weekend away with friends. Luckily we were still able to go and we had a great weekend ringing in 2009.
This year has had its ups and downs but for the most part it has been pretty good. I am ready for it to end but weary of what is ahead in 2010. This last month has thrown me some curve balls but I always find out how resilient we can be with the support of friends and family.

Some 2009 highlights:
- Completed my New Year's resolution and learned to snowboard, and became obsessed with it

- The family who lived above me moved out thus giving away to peace and quiet and a better quality of life

- FINALLY

- Puppies!!!

- Henry joined our little clan. Though Mel and I do not live together we have a traveling cat who we are in a love/hate relationship with, little bastard


- Traveled in Europe for the first time and it was amazing, cannot wait to go back
- Started a new job
- Watched as our new President try to mend relationships with the world
- Mom finally qualified for Medicare, one less thing to worry about
- GLEE- every time I watch I have a permanent smile on my face


- NUGGET!- cannot wait to welcome the little person in this crazy world

- Meeting new Friends

- The circle of friends who saw me through some rough spots and help me celebrate the good times

- Laughing a lot with my LF, I cannot wait until we can do it in the same space


Some Low lights:
- The passing of a friend's Dad, always hard.

- Helping friends through a breakup

- Not seeing some family members in over a year. Hopefully that will be rectified soon.

- Saying goodbye to the only Senator I have ever voted for, it affected me more then I thought it would

- Ramona's declining health

- Back pain that seems to be taking forever to go away. Just reminds me that I am turning the big 40 this year

Despite all of this I will be ringing in 2010 with old and new friends. Cannot beat that.
Happy New Year, wishing everyone the best.

Old

Guess why I am in here instead of out enjoying the snow?
Because I am old.



Yes sitting by the fire is lovely but after being outside all day not instead of. This is not what I really wanted to do today but my body is not corperating. I have had a sore back all week from shoveling, but it has not been too crippling, so today I get up and get ready for some boarding, load the car pick up Jaime and Melanie. We have a easy ride to Bradford Mtn, we have free passes for the day. We actually had extra so I gave them out in parking lot before we hit the slopes. I made one family's day. Then all of a sudden my back started spasming. I managed to get my gear on and get outside then the pain became too much. I can barely walk. WTF. I have been looking forward to this all week. So that leaves me in the lodge trying to get comfortable in a lot of pain blogging on my iPhone. NERDS!!! (stolen from Liz Lemon).
I am surrounded by parents and grandparents reading books while their kids are enjoying the snow. What a great way to start the holiday weekend. Is it too early for a drink?

- Post From My iPhone

Thankfullness in Pictures 2009

It is that time of year to be Thankful. I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I will let the pictures do the talking.....

Family

Mail from Nephews

20 year friendships

Annual Red Sox games

Being Prideful

BFF's

Great Travel Companions

Sharing in friend's happiness

Healthy and in shape enough to run a couple of 5Ks

And Finishing

Violent Femmes Football

Especially the Soiree

Learning to Snowboard

Missed Friends in Western Ma

Being able to travel in Europe

Especially with this Lady

Having another year with the other old lady

These two cuties

Even though one of them can be a stinker

And having this in my life...She is pretty great

It has been a good year. I am pretty lucky. To everyone who is a part of it. Thanks!!!

A Handsome Man

Again, I had another blog post ready to go but other events in my life just keep getting in the way. Typical that I have not blogged in a while then all of a sudden I become a blogging fool. Perfect for a rainy Saturday.

I have have had my fair share of celebrity sightings in Boston.....

John Malkovich asked me for directions in Harvard Square as I was crossing the street once. He was very nice.

I was in line for Ice Cream on Newbury street with Melissa Etheridge and her wife Tammy and their kids. I literally was in front of Tammy in line and we exchanged a few words about Boston real estate. On my way out of the ice cream store, I almost tripped over one of their kids and literally ran into Melissa Etheridge.

I walked by Debra Winger talking to her kid about where he wanted to go to lunch. I recognized her solely by her voice.

Peter Jennings said hello and asked me how I was doing when I walked by him on the stairs at work some years ago.

The list goes on...Phil Donahue, Julia Child, Christina Ricci. BUT...

Last night was a dozy. Mel and I were at The Intermission Tavern in the theatre district sitting at a table by the door. We were there with Mel's friend Charlie from W. Virginia and some of his City Year friends who were all very nice. We ended up staying after Charlie left and hung out with a couple of them for a bit. One of the guy's wife plays for another flag football team in my league. Anyway each time the door opened it was freezing so you could not help look up and glare. So at around 10pm or so the door opens and I look up and in walks a tall guy with a 5 o'clock shadow in a scully cap. He was with about 4 people. My eyes opened as wide as saucers and Mel was like "What is wrong with you?". I managed to croak out, "John Hamm just walked into the bar."Holy Crap!!! I whip out my iphone and post and immediate tweet. Then I went into mini freak out mode. His group walked to the back of the bar, Mr. Hamm took off his cap and whoa even Mel was like yup that is him. The two other people at our table were equally as excited. Only two of us watch the show Mad Men so we ended up waxing poetic about how great it was. So after about 15 minutes a table opened up and Mr. Hamm's group sat down. No one approached or bothered him, not sure if it was out of respect or the other patrons did not realize it was him. I headed to the bathroom and said to the woman in line. "Do you watch Mad Men?" she was like "No". I explained that the star of the show was in the bar, and she was like "That is cool". Of course I sat back down and looked down the bar and that same woman was sitting at the table right next to him. SON OF A BITCH, what a waste. A woman in their party got up to leave, he got up and kissed her on the cheek, as she walked by we all remarked that she looked familiar but could not place her, so I am guessing she is an actress who might be in the movie he is filming. After an hour of glancing down the end of the bar in disbelief I got up to use the bathroom again and there he was standing in the doorway. I looked directly at him said "Excuse me" and brushed by him touching his arm. All I have to say is he is a handsome man. I really wanted to sneak a pic but I would never walk up to a celebrity and bother them. I am of the mind they just want to be left alone when they are out, and I think that is OK. If he happened to sit near us I might have said how much I enjoy his show but that would be it. Either way, it was an exciting end to a fun night of meeting new people and discovering a new bar. I would definitely go back.

This is more what he looked like last night....

Futher adventures in Comcast

So my adventures with Comcast continues.... Here is the time line.

Wednesday
7pm
I notice I have no Wifi, turn on TV and am not getting a signal either.
7:15
I call Comcast they tell me there is an outage in my area that I will have service within 24hours. Sucks to be me but oh well.
8pm
Pick up Mel from Back Bay Train Station, we get in fight over something stupid. Not good after not seeing each other for three days.
9pm
Pipes start clanking, obviously landlord did not fix the problem when he was here on Monday.
(two things above non-relevant to Comcast, just saying)
9:30
In bed frustrated.

Thursday
7:15 am
Go to walk Ramona and run in to two neighbors, both informed me they had cable all night. Intersting.
7:30am
Call Comcast on way to work, they tell me there was no outage and that I have to be home to troubleshoot and I should call back later. So this could have been taken care of the night before?
6pm- 6:45pm
Call Comcast and get a person right away. After I give him all my info he transfers me to someone in the internet dept because they might be able to help even though both my cable and internet are out. I wait on hold for 15 minutes before getting a person. After repeating all my information the rep determines that my modem is broken and schedules a service call. The call is scheduled for Friday 11/13 from 12-4pm. She then transfers me back to the cable dept., I have to repeat all of my information again. The rep tries a couple of things and makes a note on my service call that both my cable and internet are out. I re-confirm my service call is Friday 11/13 from 12-4. I also tell them I do not have doorbell to please call. They say they call before they arrive.
7:45pm
I get an email from Comcast saying I have service call scheduled for MONDAY 11/16 from 8-11. WHAT?!?!?
7:55pm
I call Comcast and get a message saying I have a service call from 12-4 on Friday 11/13. I cannot even deal. I leave to drop HC off at Mel's, I pick up a 6 pack.
8:05-11pm
Watch TV at Mel's, we make up from our stupid fight and drink some beer. Life is good.

Friday
7:30am
I call Comcast to confirm my service call that day. The nice rep confirms it is from 12-4pm and laughs after I tell her about the email.
12pm
I get home and wait for me service call.
1pm
Jen calls to chat and confirm weekend plans.
1:30pm
The Globe calls to try to sell me more days of delivery. No dice.
2:15 pm
Jen calls again about bringing the dogs to run in the park. I say I can come up because Comcast is supposed to call me before they arrive.
3pm
I get an email saying Comcast canceled my service call for the day. HELLO? Good thing I have an iPhone because my internet is out I would not have received this email via computer.
3pm-3:15
I call Comcast and am told the service guy tried to call me at 2:30 and I did not answer. After explaining I have been here all day and received other calls there is no way they tried to call. She says she can only tell me what she sees on her screen. They do not attempt to come to the door if someone does not answer the phone. Also, they do not even leave VM. She can get someone out between 4-7. So again I am being held hostage for 7 hours in my apt. waiting for Comcast. There is much frustrated yelling on my part since this is not the first time this has happened. I always feel bad after but I am literally helpless.
3:15
I tweet my frustrations.
3:20
I meet Jen in the park frustrated and angry and she has to listen to me bitch for a good 1/2 hour
3:25
I post a huge complaint status on Facebook and @comcastbonnie wants to know what she can do. We tweet back and forth.
4pm
I hunker down ready to wait for another 3 hours for Comcast to arrive.
4:05
I hear a knock on the door, and it is Comcast. The guy remembers me from when I had 5 Comcast guys in my apt trying to troubleshoot my TiVo and cable card. He is super nice and love Ramona even though she is barking at him. I ask him if he tried to call, he says NO. Interesting.
4:15
Everything is fixed, the connector by the house was corroded. He replaces it and lo and behold my cable and internet are back. I guess my modem was not broken after all.
He asks me if I want 3 months of free HBO and tells me it will just go away after 3 months. Why yes I do. Thanks sir.
He tells me to have a nice night.

So that folks has been my further adventures with Comcast. It is such a mixed experience each time. The service guys are always nice, and I get better response from Twitter then when I call. I wish they would just make the process for service calls better. Call at least twice. If you cannot get through can't you have someone from the office try? If the internet is out then do not send emails, people without internet will not get them. It was not the end of the world not having cable or internet for two days but it would be great if I could get some reliable information so it gets fixed.

Head full of useless knowledge

It is no secret that I have a lot of useless knowledge in my head, mostly having to do with pop culture or entertainment. I am not sure why this type of information sticks with me when a lot of important stuff flies right out of my head but it does and my friends and family know this. It makes me good at trivia.
Last night I was sitting at home catching up on TiVo and I get this text from my friend KS....

Crazy enough I knew exactly that LHOTP stood for Little House on the Prairie, but the rest of the description was clearly not enough to come up with a a plausible answer. I actually paused my TiVo and thought about it for a good 10 minutes wracking my brain. I texted back, "I need more Info"
About 10 minutes later KS called me and said if she had more info she would know who it was as well as to illuminate me on why she was stalking a D- List celebrity at her local corner store. I asked more questions like, can you think of a small role she might have played or any actors who were in the TV show or movie she was also in? Nope. All she could tell me was she was an annoying younger sister type with curly blonde hair and big teeth, kind of goofy. We managed to talk it out some more and landed on the time frame being the 80's. I threw out shows like Growing Pains, the little girl is too young, Rosanne, it wasn't the first Becky but a good guess, Full House etc. Then we started talking movies. I was thinking John Hughes right away. KS said she is definitely a John Hughes type character. Then a light bulb went off. The little sister in Some Kind of Wonderful. Not the youngest sister that was Candace Cameron of Full House but the middle sister....YES!!! That was it. KS was amazed I managed to pull that out of my butt but hey that is the stuff that is burned in my brain. I have a lot of stupid useless knowledge taking up valuable space up there but this time it resulted in an impromptu catch up session with a friend who lives too far away from me these days.
In case you do not remember the little sister here is a picture from the movie to jolt your memory. Ms. Maddie Corman ala Laura Neslon.



and of course you all remember her, Watts...because we all know after HS was over she dumped stupid Keith Nelson went on to become a big old Mo.


and who did not want to be on the other end of this kiss....



enough said.

Peace

I was just as surprised as anyone the other morning when I heard Obama won the Nobel Peace prize. My first thought was, what!?!?, that is weird but then I remembered the day after he was elected and the celebrations held around the world. I was so moved to see people in the streets of England, Germany, France, Africa etc gathering and supporting us again.






Leicester Square England(Leon Neil, Getty)

The last time that happened was the solemn days after 9/11. There are many people in this country who do not want to see Obama succeed. I do not understand this. No matter how I felt about Bush I knew if he failed our country would fail and that is exactly what happened. Do we really want that to continue, it is obvious the rest of the world doesn't. If the good people of Oslo gave Obama this prize for bringing the world together again around our great nation after many years of alienation then I can get behind that. I believe Obama and the U. S. can live up to those expectations. Don't you?

-- Post From My iPhone